Return of Man to the Moon: the amazing experiences of the Artemis mission which takes off tomorrow

The craze will not be as planetary as when Man first set foot on the Moon on July 21, 1969, but tomorrow, with the take-off of the super-powerful SLS rocket for the Artemis mission from the launch complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, the world will witness the first step for the return of Man to the Moon, scheduled for 2025. In the meantime, NASA will prepare for this deadline with a first 42-day vacuum mission, c ie without a crew. Without a crew but not without anything on board.

Because inside the Orion ship carried by the rocket and which will take several days to reach the Moon, we will find strange passengers: a dummy called Moonikin Campos, installed in the commander’s seat and dressed in the new combination of the NASA. It will record the acceleration and the vibrations undergone.

Also on board are two busts of women, named Helga and Zohar, and made of materials that imitate bones or even human organs. One will be wearing a radiation jacket, the other will not. Sensors will make it possible to assess the levels of radiation received, especially in deep space, where they are much higher than during travel between Earth and the international space station, for example.

NASA will be able to follow everything that happens, especially inside the capsule docked to Orion. Cameras at the end of Orion’s solar panels are also to take selfies of the ship with the Moon and Earth in the background. Communication is also, as we can see, one of the challenges of the mission.

Finally, NASA will conduct an experiment called Callisto… and inspired by the Star Trek TV series ship’s computer, which was able to interact with the crew. It is an improved version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, which will be asked from the control center to adjust the light in the capsule, or to read flight data. The idea is to make life easier for astronauts in the future.

In addition, a set of ten CubeSats, shoebox-sized microsatellites, will be deployed by the rocket’s upper stage. The experiments are multiple: study of an asteroid, the effect of radiation on living organisms, search for water on the Moon… So many projects carried out independently by companies or international researchers, who take advantage of the rare opportunity of a launch into deep space.